Background Going into the race,
Lewis Hamilton of
McLaren led the Drivers' Championship by 12 points from his team-mate
Fernando Alonso, after Alonso crashed in
Fuji Speedway.
Ferrari's
Kimi Räikkönen was the other driver who mathematically had a chance of winning the championship, trailing Hamilton by 17 points. To clinch the championship, Hamilton needed to finish within one point of his team-mate Alonso and within 6 points of Räikkönen. Whatever the result, Hamilton would still be leading the championship after the race. The weather conditions at the track were affected by
Typhoon Krosa which hit the east coast of China.
Qualifying Sebastian Vettel was facing a drop of ten places on the grid for his collision with
Mark Webber in the previous race (the
Japanese Grand Prix), but this punishment was reduced to a reprimand. However, the
Toro Rosso driver was then dropped five places on the grid for impeding
Heikki Kovalainen during qualifying. The
Spykers of
Adrian Sutil and
Sakon Yamamoto were both eliminated in the first qualifying session, along with
Takuma Sato in the
Super Aguri,
Alexander Wurz in his final race for
Williams,
Giancarlo Fisichella in the
Renault and
Rubens Barrichello in the
Honda. However, Vettel's penalty caused him to be relegated behind Barrichello. In the second session,
Nico Rosberg in the second Williams,
Anthony Davidson in the Super Aguri,
Heikki Kovalainen in the Renault,
Jarno Trulli in the Toyota and the two Toro Rossos of Vettel and
Vitantonio Liuzzi were eliminated. The final session saw
Jenson Button come 10th in a rare top ten qualification. The two
BMW Saubers were 8th and 9th, with
Nick Heidfeld ahead of
Robert Kubica. The
Red Bulls of
David Coulthard and
Mark Webber did very well, qualifying 5th and 7th respectively. They were separated by
Ralf Schumacher's Toyota. As usual in the 2007 season, the
Ferraris and
McLarens occupied the top 4 spots in qualifying, with the Italian team's
Felipe Massa pipping McLaren's
Fernando Alonso, to third place. Although
Kimi Räikkönen of Ferrari had been the fastest driver in all three practice sessions and in the first two sessions of qualifying,
Lewis Hamilton managed to beat this time in his McLaren during the third qualifying session and therefore earned the pole position, the 6th of his career.
Race From the morning of the race onwards, conditions at the circuit were wet; this forced all drivers to use
intermediate tyres. After the start of the race, the top four remained the same as on the grid with
Lewis Hamilton leading in the
McLaren from
Kimi Räikkönen in the
Ferrari, his teammate
Felipe Massa and the other McLaren of
Fernando Alonso.
Vitantonio Liuzzi was the biggest winner from the start in his
Toro Rosso, passing
Jenson Button's
Honda,
Robert Kubica in the
BMW Sauber and the
Red Bull of
Mark Webber on lap 1. He also passed Kubica's teammate
Nick Heidfeld before too long to run sixth.
Ralf Schumacher had his
Toyota knocked from behind at the first corner, and slipped to the back of the field.
Anthony Davidson, who had qualified strongly, was the first retirement on lap 11, after his
Super Aguri suffered a brake failure. He had already dropped down to twentieth position.
Adrian Sutil was the next to drop out in the
Spyker, also from twentieth, after he spun in the wet conditions on lap 25. Schumacher, recovering from his earlier incident, had made it up to twelfth on lap 22, before he spun twice and eventually retired on lap 26. As the track dried Hamilton began to suffer from tyre wear. With his pit stop imminent, McLaren elected to keep Hamilton out and stick to the original strategy. This turned out to be a detrimental choice, because by lap 31, Räikkönen had passed Hamilton when the latter ran wide, allowing Räikkönen to take the lead. Hamilton had to come into the pits. This should not have been a problem, however, as he would still have had enough points to secure the World Championship, had he remained in that position. However, as he entered the pit lane with his tyres worn down to the canvas, he failed to negotiate the sharp left-hander into the pits, beaching his car in the gravel. Despite marshal's efforts to get him back into the race, he suffered the first retirement of his career. An effective strategy from the BMW Sauber team benefited Robert Kubica, who was propelled into the lead after the Hamilton incident. It was short-lived, however, because after one lap, a hydraulics failure deprived him and the BMW Sauber team of a potential first victory each. This left Räikkönen leading from Alonso, who had overtaken Massa in the pitstops, and Jenson Button. Räikkönen eventually came home to win comfortably from Alonso, who after having pulled out a considerable lead from Massa was later pulled back until the Brazilian finished less than three seconds behind him. This result ensured the World Drivers' Championship would be decided in the one remaining round - the .
Sebastian Vettel of Toro Rosso managed to overtake Button in the closing stages to claim fourth place after he had started seventeenth. His one stop strategy gave him the best result of his career thus far. Button came home fifth, the best result of the season for both him and the Honda team. Liuzzi brought the other Toro Rosso home in sixth place, the team's best result of its career. Nick Heidfeld was seventh in the BMW Sauber, and
David Coulthard held on for the final points position in the Red Bull despite late pressure from
Heikki Kovalainen's
Renault Alexander Wurz finished twelfth in the
Williams, and announced his immediate retirement from Formula One the day after the race. Williams announced that he would be replaced by
Kazuki Nakajima for the last race of the season. ==Classification==